David Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Development

York Feeling Subprime Pinch Downtown

York Properties is anxious.  Condos in downtown Raleigh aren’t cheap and apparently, they aren’t selling well. It’s no secret that downtown’s growth has waned recently, with projects slow to mature and sales slow to materialize. In the Charlotte Observer today Jack Hagel reports that York is putting One Eleven Seaboard on hold.  While we have seen continued commercial development, residential plans have been scaled back in many projects across downtown Raleigh. 

Hagel goes on to say that the RBC Plaza (the developer was the 2nd highest source of tax revenue in the county) and West are doing fine moving condos. Three Boylan Avenue projects have been put on hold or scaled back and the Tucker has been converted to rentals.  George York on the subject: “The market is just gone.“ Sounds that way for the time being. 

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  • Dana02/19 10:37 AM

    Actually the story originated in Monday’s N&O;:
    http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/949870.html

    Charlotte just couldn’t resist.

  • 15002/19 11:35 AM

    This really can’t come as a surpise to anyone who is familiar with downtown.  Over the last few years, it’s striking how many condos have gone up, how similiar they all appear, and how few people seem to be occupying them.

    I love living downtown, but I’ve never understood the expectation of how many people would choose to spend several hundred thousand on a condo over spending the same amount on a house, with things like a yard and not sharing walls with neighbors.  It seems like a high price tag to get the benefits of what Raleigh offers.  I certainly wouldn’t choose to buy one of the condos.

  • Kurt S.02/19 04:37 PM

    “The market is just gone.”

    Did it ever really existed outside of the imaginations and board rooms of the development and real estate organizations responsible for creating this myth?

  • Hilary S.02/19 09:51 PM

    People want to live downtown. They want to be able to walk places. They are sick of traffic. But the problem is that they have 2 cars. One parking space per condo isn’t enough for people, but in almost all of the projects that’s all you get. Parking is the number one reason people don’t buy. It’s not price or location or lack of a pool. If Raleigh really wants a booming downtown, they are going to have to provide transportation options so that people aren’t reliant on cars. I would like to believe that people who want to live downtown would be willing to live with one car (assuming there are 2 people), but right now it’s just not practical. This is actually a huge business opportunity for someone. You can’t even hail a cab downtown. Walking down Fayetteville St the other day I heard a businessman ask someone how to get a cab. I hope he didn’t have to be somewhere quick.

  • John02/19 11:31 PM

    You can’t even hail a cab downtown.

    While true, it’s not hard to find the Raleigh Rickshaw Company on the weekends. They are everywhere.

    I’m not complaining, just sayin’

  • 15002/20 10:44 AM

    You might not be able to “hail a cab downtown”, like in NYC, during the day, but there are plenty of taxis.  They’re very visible at night, parked along Fayetteville, Glenwood, West Streets, for example.

    My household is downtown, has 2 cars, and we still call a taxi every once in a while if it’s raining.  It’s not that difficult.  For those people who choose to live downtown, but are restricted by one parking space, I can see it being a frustration.  I don’t think that this frustration trumps the prices and supply/demand issue as the drain on the downtown condo market, however.

  • James02/21 07:52 PM

    This could actually be an opportunity in disguise.  “The market is gone” refers to the quarter-million dollar condos.  If the developers can find a way to make housing more affordable, people will continue to move downtown in droves.  And these would be the people who don’t own 2 cars.

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